


Penumbra

by matchacities



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Light Angst, M/M, also like multiverse physics? but in a non-physics-y way, and iwa's just like lol k, it's a spirited away au, loosely at least, matsuhana are nerds in this one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27639959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matchacities/pseuds/matchacities
Summary: In which liminal spaces link other worlds to ours, and sometimes a trip home from school takes longer than just waiting for the bus.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Kudos: 5





	Penumbra

It was six o’clock and bitterly cold. Night began to settle down its long cloak, obscuring the light, casting shadows; they were everywhere, pools of darkness in which it is only too easy to vanish into, unnoticed and unseen. The moon hung lonely and lovely and luminous above the vast city skyline. This was dusk in the city; a twilight that seeps into human bones and stays there. 

School bags slung over shoulders, jackets and gloves worn against the chill, three figures raced down the sidewalk, jostling with passersby along the side streets to the bus stop. In a minute, they were walking along the main neighbourhood streets: shuttered storefronts and lonely lots, the occasional coffee shop or apartment low-rise punctuating the monotony. 

Soon they arrived at their interim destination: the bus stop, an innocuous red post singled out only by the thin crowd of weary travellers lined up behind it, waiting for the bus to arrive. Hajime pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. 

A flurry of movement from the side alley caught his eye. A figure stepped out from the corner and looked around furtively. Uncomfortable, Hajime looked away, but not before he saw the figure smile, and vanish into the shadows. 

“So obviously it’s not just that,” Hanamaki said, “it must be something more—come on, you have to agree with me here, hey—Iwaizumi,” He snapped his fingers in front of Hajime’s face, “Iwaizumi, back me up here.”

“I agree with whatever Makki just said,” said Hajime, looking over at Matsukawa, “Sorry, I think I just saw something weird—hang on a sec.” 

He ducked around the corner and looked for the mysterious guy, finding no trace. Heading back to his friends, he looked up at the sky. It was well and truly dark out now: the stars had blinked into existence and a low fog was rolling in, obscuring them. The moonlight was gauzy through the veil of fog. 

“This bus is taking forever,” Matsukawa said, glancing down at his watch, “Can we just call, I don’t know, an Uber or something?” 

“The schedule says it’ll be here in five minutes,” replies Hanamaki, “And we’ve waited this long already. But I’m down to call an Uber if it doesn’t show up.” 

Hajime nodded his assent. 

“We should probably walk down to the next stop, though,” he said, looking down the street at the bus stop before theirs, now partially obscured by the fog, “It might be too full to get on if we wait here.”

“Yeah, okay,” said Matsukawa, hiking his backpack up on his shoulders, “Let’s get going. Okay, Makki, back to what we were talking about earlier: I completely disagree. You can’t possibly believe that “magic” must be what explains it—that doesn’t make sense. You obviously just haven’t looked hard enough—it’s not tritium, I’ll give you that, but it could be a whole host of other things.” 

“I understand the principles of beta decay as well as you do, Matsukawa, and I’m not saying it’s magic, but come on, what else could it be?” replied Hanamaki, talking huge strides to match Matsukawa’s long-legged gait, “Think about all the unexplainable things that have happened in your life—I know it’s not just me: coincidences, even disappearances, the subtle changes, the things you write down in your diary and then dismiss until they happen again, and again. Ignorance is a willful act.” 

“That’s my point: we need to keep looking. That's the royal _we_ , mind you. We’re high school students, for fuck’s sake,” he says, “If highly trained physicists haven’t been able to figure out an answer to the paradox, what are we supposed to be able to do? 

Makki shrugged eloquently. A thin layer of snow had begun to coat the ground in white, and as they walked down the street, the lights outside the shops alongside us began to turn on, one by one, as if in response to the darkness outside. 

“Hey, are you sure we’re going the right way?” Matsukawa interjected suddenly.

Hajime stopped and looked up around him: strings of Edison light bulbs hung overhead; storefronts illuminated, suffused with a warm glow. 

“I don’t think I’ve seen these stores before,” he said, “We might have made a wrong turn in all the fog.” 

“No, we’ve been going straight down the sidewalk,” replied Hanamaki, “I saw the bus stop just a minute ago. And besides, these stores are all closed during the day, they always look vacant.” 

Unbidden, Hajime thought again of the person he’d seen earlier. He shook his head and pulled out his phone. 

“Hang on, I’ll check it out on the map.”

“We definitely made a wrong turn somewhere—let’s start heading back the way we came.” 

Matsukawa brushed the crystals of snow off of his hair, turned around, and started walking, with Hajime and Hanamaki quickly following suit. They walked in silence for a moment, until Hajime cursed loudly. 

“My phone’s too cold, it won’t turn on.”

Matsukawa stopped in his tracks.

“That’s weird—it’s not that cold outside. I’ll check mine.” 

Hajime sensed a note of panic in his voice. Hanamaki remained calm, thankfully. He took a deep breath.

“It’s fine, guys. Let’s go inside one of these stores for a couple of minutes, to warm up a bit?” 

They walked back up the street until they saw a sign for what looked like a cafe. It looked empty and dingy but well-lit, and Hajime was cold. A bell jangled softly as Matsukawa opened the door. 

Slouched over at the back was the proprietor. 

“I’m starving,” Hanamaki said, “I need coffee, carbs, and dessert, right now. In that order.” 

“That can be arranged,” said a voice from the back. The proprietor pulled himself upright in his chair, revealing a gentle face with furrowed brows, “But you folks don’t look like you’re from around here.”

“What do you mean?” asked Matsukawa. Hajime looked at his reflection the window and wondered what was hiding in the darkness outside. 

The proprietor sighed.

“Come in. Have a seat.” 

**Author's Note:**

> look I just think spirited away is pretty neat.
> 
> this is partially an amalgamation of a million escapist fantasies, and partially based off of this one time I waited an hour for the bus in the freezing cold lmao.


End file.
